Hidden Narrations in Photograph-Manipulated Cityscapes

Artist Xing Danwen’s work Urban Fictions portrays urban monotony, a quality that underlies life in so many cities around the world. These large scale photographs are of models that Xing built using digital prints. Xing’s cities represent a seemingly ideal urban living environment—peaceful, orderly, and clean, with everything in its place.

Looking into these structures closely, you’ll notice little scenes occurring. A woman standing on top of a building, a couple making out, a man smoking a cigarette—the everyday goings-on of city life represented within this relatively massive setting make us contemplate our own day-to-day actions in the concrete mazes we call home. Although, some of the activities occurring in Urban Fictions are not so everyday. Riding a bike is one thing, but knife murder might not fit the category of “mundane daily activities.”

Below, see images of Urban Fictions with detail shots below each wide shot.